Post navigation

On June 1 we got our first look at the F-35A Lightning II during a Royal Netherlands Air Force press briefing. The aircraft recently made it’s premiere visit to The Netherlands and the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from east to west. An Italian built aircraft had made the first altlantic crossing earlier flying from Cameri, Italy to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in the United States.

Three recently retired Royal Netherlands Air Force Agusta Bell 412 SP helicopters will be getting a new lease on life with the Peruvian Navy. The aircraft had recently been operated by the 303rd Search and Rescue squadron based Leeuwarden airbase in the North of the Netherlands.

Last Saturday on January 24, an article by our Lieuwe de Vries was published on the popular long-form defense newssite War is Boring. Read an excerpt below:

“Dutch attack helicopters operating in Mali flew into action for the first time on Jan. 20. The result was a lopsided victory for the Dutch, who are taking part in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the country.

The battle occurred as separatist rebels from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad—or MNLA for short—advanced on the northern town of Tabankort. The rebels used heavy weapons to fire on U.N. peacekeepers in the town.

The U.N. troops called in an Apache attack helicopter to provide fire support.”

We’re back from a short vacation! This weeks update is an Italian F-104S from the 37° Stormo. If you’re a regular at this site you’ll know we love Starfighters. And we love the Italians because they had these beauties in active service up until 2004. Thanks gents!

According to manufacturer NHIndustries the problems with the NH-90 helicopter have been solved, the company’s technicians are currently applying the fixes. In an interview with FlightGlobal NHIndustries states it is using new materials to rectify corrosion issues.

Malaysia Airliners has confirmed it has lost contact with a Boeing 777 over eastern Ukraine which was enroute from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, flightnumber MH17. Some reports are claiming the aircraft has been shot down while cruising at about 30.000 feet.

Pro-russian seperatists have shot down high flying aircraft before but never machines flying at this altitude, previous shoot downs were on aircraft flying at about 20.000 feet which would put them at the upper edge of man portable air defences.

Reports now emerging are suggesting the system used might be a 9K37 Buk (NATO reporting code SA-11 Gadfly) system captured from Kiev government stock. This system is theoretically capable of downing aircraft operating at 30.000 feet. Nothing is confirmed at the moment though, the crash might be due to other causes.

On 7 July we reported on Dutch Defense Ministers Hennis-Plasschaerts decision to freeze the acquisition of the European made NH-90. The DM made her decision after the Dutch Aerospace Laboratory released a report on design and manufacturing errors causing heavy wear and corrosion on the Dutch NH-90s. It’s not the first time the NATO Helicopter has suffered from these kinds of problems as the Australians have had similar experiences.